Artist’s Guidelines

These are guidelines for the most part, but there are some rules tossed in here as well. For the most part, these apply to any art being done for the site, and the reasons are stated. The goal of this site is to put story first, not writing or art, but story. While you are an artist, your main role is actually that of a storyteller, using the unique medium of comics to tell that story in conjunction with a writer.

The goal for any comic on this site is eventual publication. Why? The site is a CO-OP. In order for the site to work, projects must be set up in such a way as to generate multiple revenue streams. One of those streams is publication.

You are encouraged to do pitches to the Editorial Board. Even pitches that you have no desire to write, but would just like to see someone do something with them.

Art Style? You are not limited here. We have no ‘company style’ and welcome any style that meets with editorial approval and the approval of the writer. The tagline for the site is Comics for people who don’t read comics, so the ‘comics style’ is only used if that is what you want to use.

If you are the first artist on a title, you are going to have more freedom that if someone has already established the looks of the characters. You are expected to stick to the designs that have already been drawn, unless you, I, and the writer all agree to the changes. We are not wanting to have the fans have to deal with major redesigns every time the artist changes. This is not about the style of art, only the look of the characters.

Deadlines. Just as the writers have no deadlines, the artists have no deadlines. Just remember, you have to set your own priorities, and one of the reasons we are a CO-OP is so that we contribute to the buffer for the site, rather than our own individual books.

Respect your writer. As the Line editor for the site, I am rougher on writers than I am on artists. Why? Frankly, because there are more writers who think they’re hot than there are artists who think they are hot. There are also fewer writers who have done the practice, study, and analysis that the average artist has, so part of what we do here is get them to start looking at story telling using comics. But by the end, what get’s posted on the site for you to look at and maybe draw has been through the wringer. And they are going to go through more when you start picking it apart from an art point of view. So please respect them, as they respect you.

If you are doing Traditional art, it is recommended that you do the work on traditional comic boards which are 11X17 with a 10X15 actual work area. You retain ownership of the original pages, and can sell or do prints of them without violating any terms here.

If you are working digitally, the pixel size of the art work is 1988X3056. This is a full size comic book page at 300 DPI. We will resize for web publication, but we need this size for print work.

Leave room for the words! This has actually turned out to be a problem. You have the script in hand, make sure there are dead spaces for the balloons. For that matter, make sure that the characters in the panel are arranged so that the balloons can be situated where the flow of the words and the speech makes sense to the reader.

The more pages you can turn in at a time, the better. Our buffer not only depends on this, but crowdfunding works better if people are being told that they can have the book in their hand before it finishes updating on the web. This is not a requirement, but it stands to make more money for you and your writer.